In lithography for device manufacture, there is an ongoing desire to reduce the size of features in a lithographic pattern in order to increase the density of features on a given substrate area. Patterns of smaller features having critical dimensions (CD) at nano-scale allow for greater concentrations of device or circuit structures, yielding potential improvements in size reduction and manufacturing costs for electronic and other devices. In photolithography, the push for smaller features has resulted in the development of technologies such as immersion lithography and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography.
So-called imprint lithography generally involves the use of a “stamp” (often referred to as an imprint template) to transfer a pattern onto a substrate. An advantage of imprint lithography is that the resolution of the features is not limited by, for example, the emission wavelength of a radiation source or the numerical aperture of a projection system. Instead, the resolution is mainly limited to the pattern density on the imprint template.
For both photolithography and for imprint lithography, it is desirable to provide high resolution patterning of surfaces, for example of an imprint template or of other substrates, and chemical resists may be used to achieve this.
The use of self-assembly of a block copolymer (BCP) has been considered as a potential method for improving the resolution to a better value than obtainable by prior art lithography methods or as an alternative to electron beam lithography for preparation of imprint templates.
A self-assemblable block copolymer is a compound useful in nanofabrication because it may undergo an order-disorder transition on cooling below a certain temperature (order-disorder transition temperature TOD) resulting in phase separation of copolymer blocks of different chemical nature to form ordered, chemically distinct domains with dimensions of tens of nanometers or even less than 10 nm. The size and shape of the domains may be controlled by manipulating the molecular weight and composition of the different block types of the copolymer. The interfaces between the domains may have widths of the order of 1-5 nm and may be manipulated by modification of the chemical compositions of the blocks of the copolymers.
The feasibility of using thin films of block copolymers as self-assembling templates was demonstrated by Chaikin and Register, et al., Science 276, 1401 (1997). Dense arrays of dots and holes with dimensions of 20 nm were transferred from a thin film of poly(styrene-block-isoprene) to a silicon nitride substrate.
A block copolymer comprises different blocks, each comprising one or more identical monomers, and arranged side-by side along the polymer chain. Each block may contain many monomers of its respective type. So, for instance, an A-B block copolymer may have a plurality of type A monomers in the (or each) A block and a plurality of type B monomers in the (or each) B block. An example of a suitable block copolymer is, for instance, a polymer having covalently linked blocks of polystyrene (PS) monomer (hydrophobic block) and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) monomer (hydrophilic block). Other block copolymers with blocks of differing hydrophobicity/hydrophilicity may be useful. For instance a tri-block copolymer such as (A-B-C) or (A-B-A) block copolymer may be useful, as may an alternating or periodic block copolymer (e.g. [-A-B-A-B-A-B-]n or [-A-B-C-A-B-C]m where n and m are integers). The blocks may be connected to each other by covalent links in a linear or branched fashion or for instance a star configuration.
A block copolymer may form many different phases upon self-assembly, dependent upon the volume fractions of the blocks, degree of polymerization within each block type (i.e. number of monomers of each respective type within each respective block), the optional use of a solvent and surface interactions. When applied in a thin film, the geometric confinement may pose additional boundary conditions that may limit the numbers of phases. In general spherical (e.g. cubic), cylindrical (e.g. tetragonal or hexagonal) and lamellar phases (i.e. self-assembled phases with cubic, hexagonal or lamellar space-filling symmetry) are practically observed in thin films of self-assembled block copolymers, and the phase type observed may depend upon the relative volume fractions of the different polymer blocks.
Suitable block copolymers for use as a self-assemblable polymer include, but are not limited to, poly(styrene-b-methylmethacrylate), poly(styrene-b-2-vinylpyridone), poly(styrene-b-butadiene), poly(styrene-b-ferrocenyldimethylsilane), poly(styrene-b-ethyleneoxide), poly(ethyleneoxide-b-isoprene). The symbol “b” signifies “block” Although these are di-block copolymer examples, it will be apparent that self-assembly may also employ a tri-block, tetrablock or other multi-block copolymer.
The self-assembled polymer phases may orient with symmetry axes parallel or perpendicular to the substrate and lamellar and cylindrical phases are most interesting for lithography applications, as they may form line and spacer patterns and hole arrays, respectively, and may provide good contrast when one of the domain types is subsequently etched.
Two methods used to guide or direct self-assembly of a polymer, such as a block copolymer, onto a surface are graphoepitaxy and chemical pre-patterning, also called chemical epitaxy. In the graphoepitaxy method, self-organization of a block copolymer is guided by topological pre-patterning of the substrate. A self-aligned block copolymer can form a parallel linear pattern with adjacent lines of the different polymer block domains in the trenches defined by the patterned substrate. For instance if the block copolymer is a di-block copolymer with A and B blocks within the polymer chain, where A is hydrophilic and B is hydrophobic in nature, the A blocks may assemble into domains formed adjacent to a side-wall of a trench if the side-wall is also hydrophilic in nature. Resolution may be improved over the resolution of the patterned substrate by the block copolymer pattern subdividing the spacing of a pre-pattern on the substrate.
In the chemical pre-patterning method (referred to herein as chemical epitaxy), the self-assembly of block copolymer domains is guided by a chemical pattern (i.e. a chemical template) on the substrate. Chemical affinity between the chemical pattern and at least one of the types of copolymer blocks within the polymer chain may result in the precise placement (also referred to herein as “pinning”) of one of the domain types onto a corresponding region of the chemical pattern on the substrate. For instance if the block copolymer is a di-block copolymer with A and B blocks, where A is hydrophilic and B is hydrophobic in nature, and the chemical pattern comprises a hydrophobic region on a hydrophilic surface, the B domain may preferentially assemble onto the hydrophobic region. As with the graphoepitaxy method of alignment, the resolution may be improved over the resolution of the patterned substrate by the block copolymer pattern subdividing the spacing of pre-patterned features on the substrate (so-called density multiplication). Chemical pre-patterning is not limited to a linear pre-pattern; for instance the pre-pattern may be in the form of a 2-D array of dots suitable as a pattern for use with a cylindrical phase-forming block copolymer. Graphoepitaxy and chemical pre-patterning may be used, for instance, to guide the self-organization of lamellar or cylindrical phases, where the different domain types are arranged side-by-side on a surface of a substrate.
In a process to implement the use of block copolymer self-assembly in nanofabrication, a substrate may be modified with a neutral orientation control layer, as part of the chemical pre-pattern or graphoepitaxy template, to induce the preferred orientation of the self-assembly pattern in relation to the substrate. For some block copolymers used in self-assemblable polymer layers, there may be a preferential interaction between one of the blocks and the substrate surface that may result in orientation. For instance, for a polystyrene(PS)-b-PMMA block copolymer, the PMMA block will preferentially wet (i.e. have a high chemical affinity with) an oxide surface and this may be used to induce the self-assembled pattern to lie oriented parallel to the plane of the surface. Perpendicular orientation may be induced, for instance, by depositing a neutral orientation layer onto the surface rendering the substrate surface neutral to both blocks, in other words the neutral orientation layer has a similar chemical affinity for each block, such that both blocks wet the neutral orientation layer at the surface in a similar manner. By “perpendicular orientation” it is meant that the domains of each block will be positioned side-by-side at the substrate surface, with the interfacial regions between domains of different blocks lying substantially perpendicular to the plane of the surface.
A neutral surface for use in chemical epitaxy and graphoepitaxy is particularly useful. It may be used on surfaces between specific orientation regions of an epitaxy template. For instance in a chemical epitaxy template to align a di-block copolymer with A and B blocks, where A is hydrophilic and B is hydrophobic in nature, the chemical pattern may comprise hydrophobic pinning regions with a neutral orientation region between the hydrophobic regions. The B domain may preferentially assemble onto the hydrophobic pinning regions, with several alternating domains of A and B blocks aligned over the neutral region between the specific (pinning) orientation regions of the chemical pre-pattern.
For instance in a graphoepitaxy template to align such a di-block copolymer the pattern may comprise hydrophobic resist features with a neutral orientation region between the hydrophobic resist features. The B domain may preferentially assemble alongside the hydrophobic resist features, with several alternating domains of A and B blocks aligned over the neutral orientation region between the specific (pinning) orientation resist features of the graphoepitaxy template.
A neutral orientation layer may, for instance, be created by use of random copolymer brushes which are covalently linked to the substrate by reaction of a hydroxyl terminal group, or some other reactive end group, to oxide at the substrate surface. In other arrangements for neutral orientation layer formation, a crosslinkable random copolymer or an appropriate silane (i.e. molecules with a substituted reactive silane, such as a (tri)chlorosilane or (tri)methoxysilane, also known as silyl, end group) may be used to render a surface neutral by acting as an intermediate layer between the substrate surface and the layer of self-assemblable polymer. Such a silane based neutral orientation layer will typically be present as a monolayer whereas a crosslinkable polymer is typically not present as a monolayer and may have a layer thickness of typically less than or equal to 40 nm. The neutral orientation layer may, for instance, be provided with one or more gaps therein to permit one of the block types of the self-assemblable layer to come into direct contact with the substrate below the neutral orientation layer. This may be useful for anchoring, pinning or aligning a domain of a particular block type of the self-assemblable polymer layer to the substrate, with the substrate surface acting as a specific orientation feature.
A thin layer of self-assemblable polymer may be deposited onto the substrate, onto a graphoepitaxy or chemical epitaxy template as set out above. A suitable method for deposition of the self-assemblable polymer is spin-coating, as this process is capable of providing a well defined, uniform, thin layer of self-assemblable polymer. A suitable layer thickness for a deposited self-assemblable polymer film is approximately 10 to 100 nm. Following deposition of the block copolymer film, the film may still be disordered or only partially ordered and one or more additional steps may be needed to promote and/or complete self-assembly. For instance, the self-assemblable polymer may be deposited as a solution in a solvent, with solvent removal, for instance by evaporation, prior to self-assembly.